Microsoft lays off more employees today in its second round

Microsoft is laying off employees today in its second round of job cuts, according to an e-mail sent to workers today from Steve Ballmer.

The layoffs are a part of the company’s previously announced 5,000 job cuts. The cuts are to occur between January 2009 and June 2010, and Microsoft says they are “mostly” complete.

Half of the layoffs will be in the U.S., and half will be international. The company would not break out how many will occur in the Seattle area.

“As part of the plan we announced in January to reduce costs and increase efficiencies, today we are eliminating additional positions across several areas of the company. While job eliminations are always difficult, we are taking these necessary actions in response to the global economic downturn,” a Microsoft spokeswoman said.

In January, in response to the global economic downturn, I announced our plan to adjust the company’s cost structure through spending reductions and job eliminations. Today, we are implementing the second phase of this plan.

This is difficult news to share. Because our success at Microsoft has always been the direct result of the talent, hard work, and commitment of our people, eliminating positions is hard.

Today’s action includes positions in the United States and in a number of countries around the world. In the U.S., affected employees will be notified directly by their managers today. In other countries, local leadership teams will provide more specific information about the impact to their organizations.

With this announcement, we are mostly but not all done with the planned 5,000 job eliminations by June 2010. We are moving quickly to reach this target in response to consistent feedback from our people and business groups that it’s important to make decisions and reduce uncertainty for employees as quickly as possible, and so that organizations can concentrate their efforts and resources on strategic objectives.

As we move forward, we will continue to closely monitor the impact of the economic downturn on the company and if necessary, take further actions on our cost structure including additional job eliminations.

For those of you directly affected by today’s announcement, I want to thank you for your contribution to Microsoft and assure you that we will continue to provide support as we did during the previous job eliminations.

And for everyone across the company, I want to reemphasize how much I appreciate the way you have pulled together to help the company respond to this difficult economic environment. There’s no doubt that these are very challenging times. But together, we are making the right choices to ensure that we will continue to deliver great products and position ourselves for strong future growth and profitability.

Thank you for your continued hard work, commitment, and focus.

Steve

Microsoft is also hiring during this period of layoffs — adding up to 3,000 jobs.

Update: 12:45 p.m. Microsoft notified the state about 15 minutes ago that it would lay off 1,200 people in the Puget Sound area, and the layoffs will take effect beginning July 4, according to the Employment Security Department.